Pepsi Gave Beyonce $50 Million To Make America Even Less Healthy

Forget the ring. You will like it if we put Beyonce’s face on it. At least that’s Pepsi’s strategy by hiring the mega pop star to be their new “brand ambassador” where Beyonce is getting paid $50 million to make American even less healthy.

The 31-year-old will not only have her face appear on Pepsi cans, bottles and in-store displays, but she will also appear in the company advertising campaign as well as the Super Bowl halftime commercial, which is sponsored by–you guessed it–Pepsi.

Of course, $50 million is not enough for Beyonce. She strategically made sure this mega-million dollar deal coincided with the release of her new album in 2013. It’s a move that she calls creative with a “lifestyle brand”:

Pepsi embraces creativity and understands that artists evolve. As a businesswoman, this allows me to work with a lifestyle brand with no compromise and without sacrificing my creativity.

What exactly is a lifestyle brand anyway? Is that what we’re calling products that are destined to make us fatter and more unhealthy? Hey, 70% of America is already overweight or obese, so we might as well consider that the new lifestyle. That’s just wrong.

On top of that, the ads featuring Beyonce are part of Pepsi’s “Live for Now” campaign. Does anyone else find that a tad ironic? Or at least irresponsible? Telling consumers to not worry about the future, just live in the moment, drink that soda, who cares what it does to your body and your health. Just keep drinking Pepsi and live for now.

Sigh.

Of course, Pepsi thinks all of this is a brilliant idea. Brad Jakeman, president of PepsiCo’s global beverage group said:

Consumers are seeking a much greater authenticity in marketing from the brands they love. It’s caused a shift in the way we think about deals with artists, from a transactional deal to a mutually beneficial collaboration.

Trust us. There’s nothing authentic about using one of the biggest pop stars around to push consumers into buying fat-inducing, cancer-causing soft drinks by using her sex appeal.